Nick James (Madsen) is a professional stunt car driver who is on his way
to prison. While riding the prison transfer bus, Lacey (Everhart) and
the stupidly-named Clay Ripple (Williams) manage to break him out and he
escapes. They do this because they are the minions of super-villain
Lamar (David). Lamar hears that Nick is the best at what he does and
they want him to be the wheelman for a bank robbery. Nick wants no part
of it, but they kidnap his wife Nadia (Christopherson) and say they will
kill her if he doesn’t comply. But there’s something bigger afoot: to
quote the movie’s tagline, “Kidnapping the President is worth a hell of a
lot of money”. So while Nick does technically kidnap President Carlson
(Scheider), The Prez is sympathetic to Nick’s situation and they vow to
take down Lamar’s terrorist
organization.

PM once again delivers the
car-flipping-over-and-exploding-in-the-middle-of-the-street goods, at
least in the action department. Sure, the chase scenes are overlong and
contain some classic cliches (fruit carts and women with carriages, the
only thing missing was two workers carrying a large pane of glass), but,
like Last Man Standing (1996), it seems Pepin & Merhi were trying, even
STRIVING for theatrical quality. It doesn’t quite make it, but at least
they’re trying, unlike many of their competitors.

One of the
more convincing reasons to watch this movie is the cast. We didn’t even
mention Robert Miano and Matthias Hues. Sadly, it’s a nothing role for
Hues, as he plays Vic, a bank robber who gets shot (remind you of any
other Michael Madsen movies?). He doesn’t appear until forty minutes
into the film, and has only one line of spoken dialogue: “I Can’t”.
Unless you count some of his moanings and groanings
while he is wounded. Gareth Williams is hate-able as Ripple, Keith
David goes way over the top as the main baddie, but what do you expect
of a criminal mastermind with an underground command center so large, it
has its own name - “Area 55”? But somehow the authorities don’t know
this place exists. Maybe that’s because it’s “two hours outside L.A.”.
Because nothing exists there, right?

Scheider plays exactly the
same role he does in The Peacekeeper (1997) (why is he even here?), Madsen is
laconic, and Everhart is fun to watch as she plays the villainess with
the permanent scowl on her face. You gotta love the banter between some
of the characters, it’s priceless (well, more groan-inducing).
Especially the scenes with Nick’s buddy Bela (Callie).

If it’s
car stunts and blow-ups you seek, look no further. This movie
exemplifies the PM credo that multiple, gigantic explosions and cars
flying and flipping every which way need not
make sense or have any justification - it’s just awesome to watch and
can be highly entertaining, if in a pretty dumb way. But these stunts
took a lot of work and effort to pull off, and we recognize and respect
that. These are REAL stunts, not CGI garbage. We wholly support the true
stunt/pyrotechnic masterminds behind Executive Target.

It was really Michael Madsen's face that perked me up to this. I've got to see this one, it's been a while since I sat down and just let myself enjoy the glory that is excessive exploding cars. Great review!